GSO Public Lecture Series<\/a>. \u201cEvery time you go to the beach, you see debris or other types of trash,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cI think people are really concerned about what\u2019s happening to coastal areas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nLohmann said the University welcomes 溏心vlog免费B站 community members and area residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur primary goal is reaching beyond. There\u2019s a lot of interest in the ocean and human impact on it,\u201d Lohman said. \u201cThere\u2019s a broad cross section, such as school-aged kids who have read about these problems and genuinely want to do something about it. Given the fact that the voters of Rhode Island decided to support the GSO, it\u2019s important that we reach out to the wider state community. This lecture will be accessible to people who perhaps did not study science in college.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walsh\u2019s work focuses on the presence of plastics in the ocean, both on a readily visible level and on a microscopic one. \u201cPeople aren\u2019t really compelled to act until they see the problem. I think the reality is that the more we highlight the issue, the more we\u2019ll enable action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lohmann agrees, pointing to the increasing regulations regarding single-use plastics as one sign of progress. \u201cIn some towns, they are already banning plastic bags and plastic straws. There are many things we can do without any major loss of convenience. There needs to be more common sense, particularly for those who enjoy the coast,\u201d Lohman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That may be changing as more in the private sector push to recognize that many plastic products last far longer than the original use, Walsh said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pollutants Lohmann studies are more insidious. PFAs (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are chemicals that have been used in everything from popcorn bags to carpets, even in pizza boxes. They\u2019re sometimes called \u201cforever chemicals,\u201d since there is no effective, natural way for them to break down once they\u2019re released into the environment. Today, they\u2019re most frequently used in fire extinguishing equipment at airports and on military bases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese are chemicals that should only be used in cases that are really important to humanity,\u201d Lohmann said. \u201cOnce they find their way into the ocean, they become diluted and nearly impossible to retrieve. That doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re gone, however. Because they do not break down, they can enter the food chain, causing a cascading effect on the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teaming up for the lecture was a natural choice because the two have been informally collaborating on proposal ideas regarding pollution problems and how to address them. \u201cIt\u2019s a natural fit having us present together,\u201d said Lohmann. \u201cThere will be something in the lecture for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This story was written by Hugh Markey. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Jan. 23, 2023 \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 Professors J.P. Walsh and Rainer Lohmann will present \u201cConfronting Ocean Pollution\u201d at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Narragansett Bay Campus\u2019 Coastal Institute Auditorium on Tuesday, Jan. 24. A reception at 5:30 p.m. and the lecture at 6, are free and open to the public. Guests are asked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":82796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82682"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82797,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82682\/revisions\/82797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}